


Blink

by thatwriterlady



Series: October Drabbles 2017 [15]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Chance Meetings, Flirting, M/M, Manager Castiel, Mechanic Dean, Mystery, Prompt Fic, meeting in person, surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 15:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12369114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatwriterlady/pseuds/thatwriterlady
Summary: Dean takes a trip up to his uncle's cabin to unwind and get away from the city and work for a while.  He notices a strange patch of dirt where nothing is growing and goes to investigate.  Little does he know that his entire world is about to get up ended, and he'll be lead to a man in Massachusetts he's never met before.





	Blink

**Author's Note:**

> So the word for this one was "Mysterious", and I really hope I hit the nail on the head with this story. Thanks to another migraine, my brain wouldn't let me think up a proper idea, so I brainstormed some more with **XHaruka17X** and she gave me this little gem of an idea, so I ran with it. I hope you all like it. Enjoy!

**Day  15~**

**Mysterious~**

Dean tossed his bags on the bed and looked around the bedroom.  It was minimally furnished but that was expected.  This was his uncle’s hunting cabin, not a four star hotel.  He’d come here for peace and quiet, and that’s exactly what he was getting.  Letting the silence wash over him, he began unpacking and putting his stuff away.  No point in living out of his bags if he was going to be here for two weeks.

 

After finishing that, he stored his bags in the closet and headed down to the kitchen to unpack the groceries he’d brought with.  He’d brought with a couple boxes of dried goods, figuring he could go later that afternoon into town to pick up meat, eggs, and whatever else he might need for cooking.  Once everything was put away, he went out on the back porch and sat down to relax.

 

“I’m going to need beer.”  He muttered to himself.  There was a peaceful hum from the cicadas and butterflies were flittering about the clover and buttercups that were growing in the grass.  After getting the call from Dean about coming out here, his uncle, Bobby had come to mow the grass.  It was short, giving him a clear view all the way out to the edge of the forest.  He spotted a rabbit munching on some grass and smiled.  Being out here was revitalizing and he needed the time to recharge.  Work and life in general was wearing him down and he just needed time to get away from everything. Bobby had told him he could stay as long as he wanted.  He was only planning on two weeks, but now that he was here, he thought maybe he might stay longer.

 

The rabbit started binking across the yard when another one joined it, and he chuckled as he watched them playing with one another.  A breeze blew in from the forest carrying the scent of pine and something earthy.  It smelled nice.  Something near the tree line caught his attention and he was curious enough to go down and investigate.  The rabbits both stopped to watch him, noses twitching and ears on alert until they realized he wasn’t heading towards them.

 

Dean slowed as he approached what looked like a perfect circle in the grass.  There was nothing growing in the center.  Not even so much as a weed.  As he watched, a butterfly started towards the circle but suddenly veered right and went around it.

 

“What the heck?”  He moved closer, squatting down to get a better look at the dirt in the center of the circle.  It was flat, undisturbed, and nothing really seemed odd about it, other than the fact that nothing was growing at all inside it.  Briefly the thought that maybe there was something radioactive buried there crossed his mind, but that didn’t explain the butterfly, and he was pretty sure the grass around it would be yellow and dying.  Plus it wouldn’t be a perfect circle.  So what was this?  Standing up again, he looked up at the sky.  The trees overhead did not overlap the circle either, but seemed to grow around it.  They wouldn’t do that with radiation either.  This was weird.  He liked weird.  A flock of geese went overheard, skirting the circle, even several miles overhead. 

 

“This is so freaky.” 

 

He looked down at the ground again.  Before he could second guess himself, he stepped inside the circle.  It was like suddenly having the volume on the world turned off.  All of the sounds of nature suddenly fell away, and silence enveloped him completely. 

 

“Whoa.” 

 

He could hear himself speak but his voice sounded weird to his own ears, almost as if it were muffled.

 

_“Hello?”_

 

Dean jumped and spun around, looking for the source of the voice but he was alone, save for the two rabbits still watching him from the other end of the yard.

 

“Hello?”  He asked tentatively, still not entirely sure he really heard anyone in the first place.

 

_“Oh!  I hear you!  Are you in the circle too?”_

 

Dean stuck his fingers in both ears and wiggled them, hoping it would help them pop so he could hear the man (at least he could make out that it was a man and not a woman) clearer.

 

“Yes, I’m in the circle.  I don’t get how this is even happening.  Where are you?”

 

_“I’m in Massachusetts.  A small town near Salem called Destiny.  What’s your name?  Where are you?”_

“This is crazy.  Is this some kind of joke?  I’m in South Dakota, dude.  My name is Dean Winchester.  I’m in a cabin in the woods in Bear Ridge.  It’s my uncle’s place.  How is this possible?  And who are you?  How are we talking?”  Dean was both mystified and freaked out.  He was also equal parts excited.  Nothing cool ever happened to him.  At least, until now.

 

 _“My name is Castiel.  I’m a store manager but I’m on vacation and there’s this circle that appeared this morning.  It wasn’t here yesterday.  I stepped into it and that’s when I heard something in the strange nothing sound.  So I called out and you responded.”_   Castiel explained.

 

“Are you staying somewhere, Cas?  Like a hotel or something?”  Dean asked.

 

_“No, I’m at home.  This is in my backyard.  You said you’re at your uncle’s cabin?”_

“Yeah, I’m on vacation too.  I just got here today though, so I have no idea if this was here yesterday.”  Dean scratched at his jaw.  “How long you on vacation for?”

 

_“Another six days.  I’m actually debating on quitting.  I hate my job.”_

 

Castiel sounded exasperated.  Dean felt bad for the guy.

 

“Hey, give me your phone number, I want to actually call you and talk to you about this.  Standing in this circle, it feels like there’s an electric current running through me, and I’m having a hard time hearing you.”

 

_“Ok, do you have your phone?  Or a pen and paper?”_

Dean pulled out his cell phone and thankfully it worked to add the number Castiel gave him.

 

“Ok, I’m going to leave the circle now.  I’m going to go inside and call you.”

 

_“Then I will go inside as well.”_

 

“Talk to you in a few then.”  Dean said.

 

 _“I look forward to it.”_  

 

Dean smiled as he stepped out of the circle.  All of the sounds of nature came rushing back, and it was almost deafening compared to the silence inside the circle.  He headed up to the house, his phone in hand already, dialing Castiel’s number as he sat down at the kitchen table.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Cas?”

 

“Dean?  Is that you?”

 

Dean felt a shiver run down his spine.  He couldn’t hear inside the circle just how deep Castiel’s voice was, but now, on the phone, he liked what he was hearing.

 

“Yeah, it’s me.  Hey, great to hear you with the volume turned up.”  He joked.  The other man laughed.

 

“That was the craziest thing that has ever happened to me and I don’t think anyone would believe me if I told them.”

 

“Same.  I didn’t even think to take pictures, not that they’d do any good.  What would anyone think from pictures of a bald patch in the grass, right?”  Dean asked.

 

“Right, I thought the same thing, even though I did take a few pictures.  I have no idea where it came from.  I was in my yard last night and it wasn’t there.  This morning, it was.  I noticed the bees were avoiding flying through it.”  Castiel said.

 

“Yeah, I watched a butterfly fly around it, and the trees are growing around it here.  I’ve heard of strange vortexes and stuff.  Do you think that’s what this is?  Some sort of mysterious portal or something?”  Dean wondered.

 

“Well, I don’t know about a portal, though it did carry our voices thousands of miles away, as if we were on a phone with one another.  This was truly the oddest thing to ever happen to me.”

 

“Tell me about it.”  Dean huffed.  “I came here to enjoy nature and went to sit out on the back porch when I saw this weird bald spot in the grass.  I went to investigate and my first thought was that maybe something radioactive had been planted.  I’m doubting that now though.”

 

“Hmm, that crossed my mind too, until I heard your voice.  You…have a very nice voice, now that I’m hearing it clearly.”  Castiel sounded shy, and it brought a smile to Dean’s face hearing him like that.

 

“I didn’t expect your voice to be so deep.  Kind of caught me off guard when you answered the phone but, uh, you have a really nice voice too.  You sounded like you were at the other end of a tin can before.  All I could really tell was that you were a guy.”

 

Castiel laughed and it sent more shivers down Dean’s spine.  He liked hearing the man talk but his laugh was wonderful.

 

“So, do you have any theories on what the circle is?”

 

“Not a clue.  I’m a mechanic, not an astrophysicist.  Though I’m beginning to think maybe I went into the wrong line of work.”  Dean chuckled.

 

“As am I.  I earned a degree in business management, not science.  Could really use one right about now.”  Castiel said.  “Do you think anyone would believe us if we told them?”

 

“I don’t know.  What do we say?”

 

“I’m not sure.  It’s rather unassuming to look at.  Unless someone is standing in the one on the other end, they’ll never know what can happen.  We happened to luck out, us both standing inside at the same time.”  Castiel replied.

 

Dean smiled.  “I dunno.  Maybe it was fate.  Like we were meant to meet.”

 

“I like that idea.”  Castiel sounded shy again.  “Though meeting through a strange portal, or whatever it is, is not how I thought I’d meet men.”

 

That got Dean’s attention.  “Well, maybe fate had other plans for us.”  He got up and grabbed his laptop off the coffee table in the living room and brought it back to the kitchen.  “Do you have a Facebook?”

 

“I do, why do you ask?”

 

“Give me your full name.  I want to look you up, see if you’re as sexy as your voice.”  Dean dared, hoping he’d read the man right before.

 

“O-oh, um, C-Castiel Novak.  Destiny Massachusetts.”

 

Dean pulled Facebook up and typed in Castiel’s name.  It was an unusual enough one that only one person came up.

 

“Your profile picture of three people, two men and a woman with red hair?” 

 

“Yes.  That’s my sister, Anna, and my brother, Gabriel.  I’m in the middle.”

 

Dean sent up a silent thank you to the powers that be that the man in the middle was the one he was currently on the phone with because Castiel Novak was freaking _gorgeous_!  He sent the man a friend request.

 

“Are you on Facebook right now?”

 

“I am actually pulling it up on my computer right now.”  Castiel replied.  “Oh!”

 

“Yeah, that’s me sending you a friend request.” 

 

“Which one are you?  The tall one with the longer hair or the shorter one with the green eyes?”  Castiel asked.

 

“Green eyes.” 

 

“You’re gorgeous!”  Castiel gasped.  Dean broke out laughing.

 

“Well thanks, handsome.  I thought the same thing about you.”

 

“Me?  No.”  Castiel argued.  “But thank you.”

 

“So, this circle thing.  Do you think talking is all we can do with it?”  Dean asked.

 

“What else do you think it’s capable of?” 

 

“I’m not sure.  Were you feeling the electrical charge like I was?”  Dean had felt it raising the hair on his arms, but he’d smelled it too. 

 

“No, there was nothing on my end.  You felt electricity?” 

 

“Yeah.  I’m not sure, but maybe if I’d stayed in the circle longer, something more might have happened.”  Dean replied.

 

“I’m worried you might have disappeared.  Let’s not risk it.”  Castiel said.

 

“But I could end up on your end.  I’d like to meet you in person, Cas.”

 

“We could arrange that without putting our lives in danger by trusting some mysterious bald patch in the grass.  I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t talk to you after I just met you.”

 

Dean grinned.  “Oh yeah?”

 

Castiel snickered softly.  “Don’t go getting full of yourself now.  We don’t even know each other.”

 

Dean stood up and went to stand at the back door, looking out at the circle.  “Well, why don’t we start working on that right now?”

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

They talked on and off for the rest of Castiel’s vacation, more on than off, and when it came to an end, he reluctantly went back to work.  He hated his job though, and the 80 hour work week he maintained, so after two weeks of that and only getting to scarcely talk to Dean who had decided to stay up at his uncle’s cabin, he quit.  The circles had disappeared three days after they had appeared.  One day they was there, the next they were gone, no trace that they had ever existed, and any plans they’d had to contact any kind of paranormal center went right out the window.   It was the freakiest thing either of them had ever encountered in their lives, but Dean still thought fate was working to bring them together, and the day after Castiel quit his job, he bought a plane ticket to South Dakota.  One way.

 

Dean met him at the airport.  He was a ball of raw nerves but the moment he laid eyes on the man, they all melted away.  Castiel was beautiful and as sweet in person as he’d been over the phone and online.  He brought him back out to the cabin, where he was still staying, and showed him where the circle had been.  It was long gone by that point, but it was how they’d met, and it felt right to show him where his had been.

 

“It’s weird, don’t you think?  Do you think it moves around?  Maybe it popped up in another spot?”  Castiel asked.

 

“I don’t know.  I’ve thought about that, and that’s a logical deduction.  I’ve also considered like, what if it was aliens?  Maybe you were right to tell me to stay out that day.  I could have ended up getting beamed up onto a ship with little green men instead of to Massachusetts with you.”

 

Castiel chuckled and shook his head.  “I don’t know about little green men, but…maybe?  Maybe it was other worldly?  Maybe it was a vortex.  They’re all over.  I doubt we’ll ever really know.”

 

‘Well, I was thinking we could stay the night here, then we’ll make the drive back to my place tomorrow.  It’s about two hours north of here.  I’m sure my staff is wondering where I disappeared to.  I’m handling the invoicing and stuff from here, but I left my managers in charge of my shops.  I just really needed a breather.  It felt good to get away for a while.  My staff is competent.  Wait til I come back with you though.  I’m never going to hear the end of it.”  Dean teased.  Castiel smiled warmly as he slipped his hand into Dean’s.  It felt nice being able to actually touch the man and not just hear his voice over the phone.

 

“I’m very happy to be here.  It’s beautiful here.  I like the mountains.  Will you show me around?”

 

“I sure will.”  Dean promised.

 

The next day, on the ride back to Dean’s house, they heard a report come over the radio of a man that went missing in his own backyard.  A strange circle had appeared that morning and he’d stepped inside it.  His wife said he’d blinked out of sight just minutes later, and no one had seen him since.

 

“Holy shit.”  Dean muttered.

 

“Oh my God.”  Cas gasped.

 

They were both glad they’d gotten out of the circle when they had!

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always welcome. Thank you for reading.


End file.
